Bartender Al Marquez serves up laughs creating social media content
When local bartender and social media content creator Al Marquez was choosing his Instagram handle for an account dedicated entirely to the ups, downs and sideways of his chosen trade, he chose @alf_marr for no reason whatsoever.
“I just picked a random name. I don’t know why. There are already a lot of Al Marquezes,” he reflects.
Marquez has more than 21,000 followers on Instagram, along with over 8,000 followers and 2.1 million likes on TikTok. The Stockton native, who went to Sacramento State and studied communications, has no formal acting or comedy training. Instead, he’s built his social media chops through working at the Hyatt House Star Lounge in Midtown Sacramento since it opened in 2023.
“I’m not a performer or an actor and had no aspirations of being one,” he says. “I think when you’re behind the bar, there is an aspect of performance art. I go, I clock in, and I kind of put on a show every day.”
Though he’s only in his early 40s, Marquez is already a “service well vet” (his words) in the Sacramento bartending scene, where he’s worked for 17 years. Before Star Lounge, he’d shaken drinks at R15, The Shady Lady and The Red Rabbit Kitchen & Bar.
His coworkers, regulars and superiors are all fans of his content, and he uses Star Lounge as the set for most of his videos, with permission (and enthusiasm) from higher-ups. Even Hyatt House owner Roger Hume once quoted one of his own videos right back to him.
After following Barstool Sports on X, formally Twitter, and interacting with their audience, Marquez saw that his memes and videos were being re-shared. His content caught Bartstool’s eye, and in 2021, he was asked to run the X account, Instagram and TikTok for Hard Factor News, a satirical news podcast. Marquez claims he did so without experience in social media. From there, he started making bartender videos as a gag for his followers, who were mostly just his friends at the time. “The second or third video I made went viral, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool,’” he says.
Marquez edits on Videoleap and the TikTok app and spends (at most) two hours a week creating content. He spends countless more hours searching for ideas. “When I make something, it’s usually a riff on something else or a trend. I probably spend more amount of time scrolling and trying to find ideas. That would be hours,” he says. “I don’t want to say how many hours.”
So, has it paid off? Is Marquez making that “influencer” fame and money? “I make zero dollars off of this. I don’t know how to do it,” he admits.
To disconnect from the bar and his phone, Marquez goes to the gym, listens to music and spends time with his 12-year-old son doing things they enjoy, like recently attending StocktonCon. “I’m a huge nerd. And he’s become one too. We go to the comic book shop. We play catch,” he says.
Of all the TV shows and movies about working in bars and restaurants, Marquez says jokes-wise, 2005’s “Waiting” movie still takes the cake. “Whoever made that obviously worked in a restaurant. Those jokes work to this day.”
Jokes that Marquez claims he’s tethering off of and not building from the ground up.
“I’m not doing anything that’s new or groundbreaking. Everybody that has worked in a restaurant is like, ‘That’s happened to me,’” he says. “If there are 10 clean tables and one dirty table, the guests will always sit at the dirty table. It doesn’t matter if it’s Sacramento or Chicago or Dallas or Miami. It’s going to happen to everyone.”
By Helen Harlan
